Thursday, March 19, 2009

Read Together -- 2009

It's been a year and a half since I did something like this, but I have found my own resolve weakening in this area -- specifically with Amanda (age 10) -- so I thought it was time to sponsor another one.

"Another one what?" you may be asking. Well, Read Together is a challenge to use reading as a way to connect with your kids. I am inviting each of you to set a specific goal in regards to reading with your child(ren).

So--think of a concrete goal that you can fulfill in the month of April. You can spread the word on your own sites if you want. Then on April 1, I'll have a Mr. Linky here where you can link up your post stating your goal. The last week of April, I'll have another Linky for you to post your goals (and perhaps just for fun, a goal for next month).

It's open to all ages, but I'd really love to see more people commit to reading to their older children. I'd also like to see goals that stretch you in some way.

For example --

If you already read for 10 minutes each night to your preschooler, stretch it 20, or commit to reading to him at breakfast time as well.

If (like me) your 10-year-old child always has her nose stuck in a book, but you've stopped sharing any books, find a definite time when you can read a book together.

Perhaps you can stretch genres or age limits. If you are stuck in a rut, read something a bit more challenging. If you only read picture books to your preschooler or early elementary aged student, take the opportunity to step it up with a fun chapter book.

If you always read to your children individually, perhaps your challenge will be to find a book that will appeal to everyone that you can read together as a family.

My own goals actually hit all of these areas, and I'm excited to see what happens. So between now and April 1 -- think and plan. Then get ready to read!

Resources:Search twitter for #ReadTogether and tag your tweets.

Thanks, as always to the wonderful Jen Robinson for pointing me to the Share a Story - Shape a Future initiative. You can find so much on that site. Day 3 (found in the left sidebar) is devoted to reading aloud, but you can mine that site for hours for excellent information and encouragement to help you in setting your goals.

10 comments:

I'm in. I had almost forgotten about this until you posted a bit about it the other day and I've become aware that reading with my middle boy has fallen by the wayside, so I'm going to look for ways to step that up namely with him. This is a great idea! I'll be back with a post on April 1. :)

JAM and I kind of fell out of reading together for a while, and just last week, I picked up a few books for us to read together. The other night, we started "Hoot" so we'll see how it goes! :) Great idea here!

I've been trying to become more intentional about reading aloud with my kids. Will and I just finished Henry and Ribsy by Beverly Cleary (a dog book!) and loved it. I think I'll make it my goal to read 2 more Henry/Ribsy books with him in April. It'll be a stretch but it will be good for both of us.

Hi. Thank you so much for stopping by my blog through the SRT link. I have 5 kids ages 9-4 and we love to read! This April we will be picking a new book to read as a family-we have a book club I named: Mom's Rockin' Readers. I'll make sure to link up on April 1st to share more about the why and how of our book club:)

This is a wonderful idea and there is always room for improvement. I'd love to join in on the challenge. :) I'll be doing a blog post at my homeschool blog [Journey of Discovery] just as soon as I can!